EDITORIAL. 703 



tionship gives to the meeting general agricultural interest, which 

 takes account of the progress in the production of a safe milk supply. 



How large and important the question of milk supply has become may 

 be seen from a recent estimate that in 1909 4,2G0,324:,206 gallons of 

 milk were consumed as such in this country. This represented an 

 estimated value to the producer of $647,569,279, and to the con- 

 sumer of $1,463,847,397. The perishable nature of this food and its 

 peculiar susceptibility to contamination and the transmission of 

 infectious diseases, coupled with its extensive use in the feeding of 

 infants and invalids, make manifest the need of adequate systems of 

 inspection. 



Efforts to safeguard the milk supply against adulteration began 

 in this country many years ago. In fact, many communities had 

 laws or ordinances for the prevention of milk adulteration long 

 before making any attempt at general regulation of the entire food 

 supply. Probably the first dairy laws were those enacted in Massa- 

 chusetts in 1856 against the adulteration of milk by adding water, 

 and in 1859 prohibiting the feeding of brewery waste to cattle. Dur- 

 ing the latter year the appointment of dairy inspectors was author- 

 ized, and in 1880 a minimum standard was fixed for total solids in 

 milk. 



Much of the earlier legislation, as already pointed out, was 

 directed against the deliberate adulteration of milk, as by watering, 

 skimming, and the addition of preservatives, artificial color, or 

 thickening agents, and was based upon a more or less crude examina- 

 tion of the milk as it appeared in the market. The necessity for 

 inspection of the dairies and of the cattle producing the milk became 

 apparent with the increased knowledge of the sources of milk infec- 

 tion and its dangers, and the sanitary side assumed a prominence 

 fully equal to the chemical and physical. In 1895, a milk law was 

 enacted for the District of Columbia under which permits were re- 

 quired for the sale of milk, and one condition for granting these 

 permits was the maintenance in a sanitary condition of the cattle 

 producing the milk wherever located, as well as of the premises 

 where it was produced and handled. In 1898, the city of Boston 

 adopted somewhat similar ordinances governing the sanitary condi- 

 tion of its milk supply, and since then regulation along these lines 

 has become quite general. 



The first attempt to rate conditions on dairy farms in terms of 

 figures was in the District of Columbia in 1904, when Dr. Woodward, 

 of the Health Department, originated a score card for this pur- 

 pose. In 1905, K. A. Pearson evolved the Cornell score card, and 

 in 1906 a modified score card was issued by the Dairy Division of 

 this Department. In 1907, the Association of Official Dairy In- 



